Did you know that December is Gift of Sight month?
Here are some cool and fun facts about your vision:
If the human eye was a digital camera, it would have 576 megapixels
Eye muscles are the fastest contracting muscles in our bodies – so it's for a reason that we say ‘in the blink of an eye’
The only organ more complex than the eye is the brain
Our eyes can distinguish approximately 10 million different colours, but essentially only sees three key ones: red, blue and green. Everything else is a combination of them.
With that said, humans can distinguish 500 shades of grey!
Blue-eyed people share a common ancestor with every other blue-eyed person in the world
The optic nerve contains more than one million nerve cells
About half of the human brain is dedicated to vision
Pirates believed that wearing gold earrings improved their eyesight
The muscles in the eye are 100 times stronger than they need to be to perform their function. Hey, those eye muscles are super important to us!
Did you also know that eyes play a super important role in how our body moves overall?
Yes, of course, you need to see where you are going, and that's exactly where it starts. But it's not as simple and obvious as it seems:
Our eyes use muscles controlling the movement of the eyeballs as we walk, rotate, turn. When we turn the head to the right, for instance, we need to be able to look to the right, but also look to the left. Not everyone is able to - we can have muscle compensation patterns involving eyes, same as with the rest of the body! Patterns involving the eyes will definitely have a bearing on the whole of you.
We need to converge (look inwards towards the bridge of the nose) to judge distance. If we can't, it's a problem for depth perception (seeing in 3-D) and our overall balance, stability and spatial awareness. Often, these problems can linger after a concussion or another brain injury.
There is an important relationship between the eyes and the balance system (called the vestibular system) that gives you awareness of your body in space, helping us not to fall over or be clumsy. And there is an important link between the eye muscles and the neck. Problems with eyes will likely cause problems with the neck. Migraines can be linked to this, too. In many cases, it can be addressed without the need to rely on medication for the rest of our lives.
Lack of balance between eye muscles on the left and the right side can create complex problems. A lot of it can be addressed, too. Balance challenges can also be improved by doing various exercises involving eyes and head and body movements.
My tools of choice for many of these challenges will be the resolution of muscle-related patterns by using Neuro-Kinetic Therapy ® and also applied neurology tools with vestibular (balance system) re-training.
So no, it is not just about having the correct prescription for reading or driving!
Look after your eyes, and keep your eye muscles strong and balanced. If you have any questions, send me a message!
To your health, Kaye
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Image credit - Victor Freitas
